Cheney receives Thoughtexchange feedback

When the Cheney School District received the results of the third phase of the Thoughtexchange process — Discover — it learned the community had many concerns, but also many appreciations.

Superintendent Dr. Deb Clemens said the district contracted with Thoughtexchange to create a “weather report” to help staff understand the thoughts and concerns of staff, parents and community members have for not only Cheney School District, but also individual buildings.

The first step of the Thoughtexchange conversation for Cheney — Share —began in September. The district invited the community, all parents, staff and key communicators to share their concerns and appreciations about the district and individual buildings, as well as submit key ideas. In the second step — Star —community members reviewed ideas people contributed and assigned stars to the ones they felt were most important. Cheney had 43,686 stars assigned to various topics. Thoughtexchange created a website where the community can see the results.

The Thoughtexchange process had 879 participants who shared 1,555 thoughts. Sixty-seven percent of participants (586) were parents/guardians. Eighteen percent of participants (159) were staff members, 12 percent (109) were a combination of parents and staff and 2 percent (19) were community members.

The Thoughtexchange conversation was broken down into concerns, appreciations and additional thoughts.

The largest concern from the community was “Overcrowding and enrollment,” which had 2,420 stars assigned from 337 participants and 56 comments, many of which expressed their concern about the growing number of students in each of the buildings. “Facilities to accommodate growth” (1,601 stars assigned from 292 participants and 36 comments) was the second-largest concern among the community. Similar to overcrowding, particpants cited the high school’s spacing issue as a concern.

“Overcrowding and facilities is something we’ve been meaning to address,” Clemens said. “With full-time kindergarten and other programs, we’ve been bursting at the seams, particularly at the elementary and high school levels.”

“Testing versus learning,” with participants concerned that students are being taught to take tests and meet state Common Core standards, “Staffing considerations” and “Student behavior and discipline” and “Funding Resources” were other major concerns from participants.

“Many of the concerns have affirmed what we are currently working on and how we could better communicate our efforts to the community,” Clemens said.

“Quality of teachers and staff”, which had 4,161 stars from 425 participants and 115 comments, was the highest-ranked appreciation. Many community members praised the district’s staff and faculty for their commitment to students.

“Communication” (1,226 stars assigned from 226 participants and 33 comments) was the second-highest among appreciations. “School Climate,” “Parent and community involvement” and “Student health and wellness” were other top appreciations participants shared.

Many of the ideas participants shared in the additional thoughts category were similar to the concerns and appreciations.

Most of the individual buildings had top concerns and appreciations similar to those of the district, including class size, quality of staff and communication. However, some schools had concerns and appreciations that were unique to them as well.

Some of the concerns included unequal opportunities at Cheney Middle School and Westwood Middle School, better security at Salnave Elementary School’s main entrance and renovating the high school. Appreciations specific to schools included principal Vince Songaylo’s leadership at Windsor Elementary, staff’s individualized attention to students at Three Springs High School and Sunset Elementary’s breakfast program.

“The feedback is valuable to each school and the principals,” Clemens said. “It affirms the work they are doing and it also gives them something to think about.”

Clemens said staff will present the key ideas to the school board. The district will launch a new Thoughtexchange conversation in January, focusing on the main concerns from the weather report. While Clemens felt the first conversation was good in terms of participation, she’d like to see more community members participate in this next process.

Parents and community members can call (509) 599-4599 or email jointheconversation@cheneysd.org to add their name to the list for the next conversation.

To visit the Cheney School District’s Thoughtexchange webpage, visit http://cheneysd.thoughtexchange.com/

Al Stover can be reached at al@cheneyfreepress.com.